Sold Out?

My 'album of the week' this week has been Time Out Of Mind. I find that it is an album that I can listen to from start to finish without skipping a single beat. Even the lengthy Highlands is an absolute joy. That said, it is a sad album and the songs concern endings, loss, sadness, death... all the things Dylan encapsulates so well in his music and lyrics.

The one song I wanted to write about was the first on the album. Love Sick has an ethereal quality to it. It is punchy with the rhythm of a measured pace - the footsteps as Dylan begins, 'I'm walking through streets that are dead...'.

It is amazing in terms of the emotion. Here we see a person unsure; rejected and wandering the empty, late-night streets wondering what to do; seeing others who are in relationships adding to his misery. Dylans voice cracks in the right places to convey all the unspoken anguish. He stutters in parts. It is obsessional and dark. I find it a fantastic description of that complete incongruity - love like an illness that can make you feel so pained and bad you don't ever want to experience it again... yet such an addictive drug you can't give it up.

This awesome song caused a bit of a ruckus when it was used in a Victoria's Secret advert on US television a few years back. Dylan even appeared in the ad. Shot in Venice, it was quite dark and mysterious - a lingerie model in angel wings wandering around and Dylan in the shadows. Living in the UK, I heard the commotion but did not see the advert until recently, courtesy of YouTube.

Some people found it a bit creepy, but I didn't mind so much. I thought Bob Dylan looked great in the advert, and I wished I looked like one of those models so he would chase me around Venice! I wouldn't try too hard to get away...

The big question though - did Dylan 'sell out' with this branch into commercial advertising? He always said that the only thing to tempt him to 'sell out' would be ladies' underwear! Then there was the Starbucks issue. Crikey.

Ever since the cry of 'Judas' as Dylan went electric, everyone has thrown accusations about 'selling out' and not being true or faithful to the cause of protest music... or whatever else they saw Dylan as their champion of.

But Bob Dylan has always rejected that role. He is not a prophet or a spokesperson. He writes about what is in his heart. He experiments and branches where the music takes him. People put expectations onto him and give him a predestined role - this is an unfair burden on any man.

Bob Dylan writes songs and performs music for a living. It is his trade. He is not a 'messiah'. He supports causes that he feels drawn to, but he is not 'political'. He is nobody's spokesman. He is not here to represent us.

Accept the musical gifts that Bob Dylan gives to us. If you like them and they touch and enrich your life, thank him.

If you don't, nobody is forcing you to listen.